Winter Wishes ATC

Here's my SP & Company weekly Design Team post. I forgot to schedule this for the right time. So I'm sorry if you stopped by earlier and missed it.

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I love participating in ATC swaps. It is so much fun to receive all those little pieces of art from so many talented artists. A group I'm in does a quarterly exchange. This last one was a winter themed swap.

Here's the card I came up with:

I created the background by embossing white cardstock with Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, stamping two images - a flourish in black and branch in gray, both from Unity's Imagine It set. Then inked the edges in Black Soot, and randomly ran the entire pad of Weathered Wood over the entire card. I stamped snowflakes from the Falling Snow stamp set to add a little blue to the card. I've used this set so much! It's an oldie but a goody!

I loved the background so much I didn't want to cover it so I stamped the sentiment from the same set onto vellum so you could still see it. I finished it off by adding two snowflakes I cut using SCAL and sprayed with Glimmer Mist and then added some I-rock bling.

All 21 cards:

 I can't wait to see what I get back! Now to start my Spring cards...

I'm entering this into Scrapbook Place Challenges current ATC challenge.


Thanks for stopping by today. For more inspiration using SP stamps stop by the blog for some great ideas.

Lucky

For my Design Team post for SP & Co I decided to use this new Lucky stamp. And since the current Stamping with Sami challenge (SWS #8) is to use a distressed technique, I did that too to play along.

 I stamped my background using the Bold Houndstooth background stamp in Crushed Olive Distress Ink. I then aged the white paper with Old Paper ink and inked the edges in Pumice Stone ink.

I stamped the clover in Forest Moss and inked the edge with Crushed Olive and matted with a scrap of aged brown paper. All the edges of paper were distressed before being adhered together.

I then stamped the sentiment in Black Soot on a long stip of textured cardstock. I cut out the notches on the ends, inked the edges with Pumice Stone, and folded it into a scroll banner. Then I adhered with foam to give it dimension and added the green I-rock bling to add a bit more flair.

 And here is my distressed Lucky card! Thanks for stopping by.

Make sure you stop by the SP stamps blog for more ideas on using stamps and to enter the challenge for your chance to win some free stamps and a guest designer spot!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here are some really quick and simple 3x3-ish cards I made. Most are 3x3 but a few are a bit smaller because I used up some scraps and that's just how they ended up!

I stamped the grid from the SP&Company Journal This stamp set as the background. I added these fun converstation heart stickers in the center, stamped a simple sentiment of love (also from the Journal This set), and then added some black twine as the finishing touch.

I thought these would be perfect for last-minute Valentine's gifts. You know there are always people you might forget about - the school secretary, husband's secretary, neighbors, etc. In fact, I just remembered that there is an aide in my son's kindergarten class that I always forget about!

Some close-ups:

These also work perfectly for the current Stamping with Sami challenge over at the SP stamps blog. The challenge is to use a love theme on your project. I'm sure with this week being Valentine's that  you all have a love project around so go enter it. It could be a card, layout, or altered art. You could win a free stamp plus the opportunity to be a guest designer as well!

For more info and more inpsiration using these stamps please visit the SP stamps blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

SP&Co Blog Hop

It's the 10th of the month and time for a new stamp release from SP and Company. To celebrate here is the monthly blog hop!

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This month's color is Bright Red! After you're done hopping around today, make sure you play along with this month's Red challenge (click here for details) for a chance to win some awesome SP and Company prizes!

Join us for our Release Celebration that is happening today and tomorrow on the SP Forum HERE.  You can talk to all of the designers, discuss projects and chit chat with other stampers!

Don't forget that the random prize patrol is watching so leave a comment on every blog to be eligible for the prizes!!
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All the journaling stamps were just screaming "layout" to me, so I had to listen! It would be rude to ignore the stamps! Right?? Respect the stamps.
But I don't scrap with red.
But....then I remembered this photo of my son from kindergarten with this atrocious red background. Perfect! Here is the project I created with the new Journal This set:

I stamped the grid several times in red to create the matte for the photo. I stamped and fussy cut the tab and added the "you" to it. I also used the month stamps, the round numerals (typewriter style), the line of numbers, and that wonderful handwriting line one!

Some close-ups of the stamped images:

tab, grid, you

months, typewriter numbers

handwriting lines, number line

This is such a great stamp set. I just have to show you what the entire set looks like:

And then I had an idea for a fun card:

I cut out the people on my die-cutting machine and added the hearts.

Then I stamped the words from the stamps and hand-drew the plus and equal signs.

The paper is EP's Metropolitan 6x6 pad which you can also find in the SP&Co store.

Make sure you check out the SP Blog to see what Samantha did with the new stamps! We also have the Stamp Team and the Challenge Team teaming up today to show you lots of amazing projects with the newest stamp sets!


Here is the list of designers that will inspire you today on the hop:

Chrissie

Lori

Jen

Amber {psst..that's me!}

Britt

Vicki 

Kelli

Michelle

Stephanie

Patty

Bonnie

Susan

Tella

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment!

: )

How-to with stamp markers

Today, I am a guest blogger at Scrapbook Steals! If you know me then you know they are my absolute favorite online retailer!! I think they single-handedly created my love of all things stamps and paper!! Today (9AM until 9 PM MST) they are featuring American Crafts stamp markers as their steal. And I somehow conned them into thinking I could demonstrate how to use them ; )

Head on over to their blog for some tips on how to use these wonderful markers.

Here are the projects I created:

Some brief points about the markers:

• Less expensive than stamp pads
• Dual-ended with a brush tip (coloring in stamps) and writing tip (journaling)
• Their small size lets you edge paper getting even into the smallest corners
• You can ink up your stamps in several different colors at once
• You can color in outlined stamp images as well
• If you have a color spritzer you can ust these as a spray mist
• They extend the use of your stamps by allowing you to omit parts of the image easily

Close-ups of the cards and layout made with the stamp markers:

Thanks to Kristy Lee and Lisa Mack for believing I was capable of doing this!!

Make sure you head over to ScrapbookSteals soon if you are at all interested in these American Crafts markers as a lot of their steals sell out quickly! Those girls have F-A-S-T shopping fingers over there!

A NEW challenge blog

There's a NEW challenge blog starting today!

It's called The Paper Girls Challenge Blog.

So me and 8 other girls decided to start this little venture for some crafty fun.

We will post challenges on the first and third Mondays of the month.

Each girl will take a turn hosting and deciding the challenge. So it could be anything from a sketch to color to recipe challenge or anything else we may feel like!

Judy is hosting the first challenge that starts today with this sketch:

 

And here is my take on it:

I hope you'll join us in the challenge.

Judy has a prize up for grabs so head on over and play!

Not Snow Much

This is my second post of the day. For my SP DT post featuring my Valentine's card scroll down to the post right after this one or clcik HERE.

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I scrapped. It's true. It finally happened again!

I used this sketch from this month's Authentique challenge:

And I came up with this:

Yeah, so I flipped the sketch and added and extra photo. And moved the journaling. But I liked the way it turned out!

For details on how I created the background paper see my post here.

Supply list:

AC white cardstock

Authentique Freebird Endless (polka dot)

Authentique Journey 6x6 (blue and grey damask-like paper)

Authentique Freebird Delight (journaling)

Authentique Glowing (black paper, Classic Type alpha stickers)

Authentique Petite Type Circle alpha stickers

SP&Company Falling Snow stamp set

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Frost

I Love You

It's Tuesday and time for my DT post for SP and Company.

Today I've got a Valentine's Day card (and it's not even February yet. Yay me!!).

I used this MCM #67 sketch from ScrapbookSteals.com

This was a great way to use up a bunch of different papers!

Supply list:

Lippy Single Stamp

Ultimate Sentiments II

Echo Park Yours Truly 6x6 pad

I've also got a post on the SP Stamps blog today as well. Check it out if  you have time. Thanks!



A preteen journal

I made this journal for my little niece as a Christmas present.

I started by taking some of my white printer paper and folding it in half for the insdie pages. The covers are made from an old Cheerios box! I covered it in this really cool Basic Grey paper from the Obscure line. Then I bound it with my Cinch tool with that hot pink wire because what little girl doen't love pink? 

To  make a few pockets (for collecting photos, tickets, notes, etc) I cut some patterened paper and adhered it to a few pages (gluing only on the sides and bottom).

Then I put my die-cutter to work! Using the Indie Art cartridge I cut the skull and cross bones but added wings and a tiara! In metallic paper. Because it's for a girl. And girls love tiaras and sparkly things!

 I also cut the butterfly in 2 sizes and layered them and covered the body with glitter glue and added a random heart I had leftover from another project.

Then I cut the heart locket and key several times. I think the locket was cut about 5 times from cardstock and I glued all the layers together to make it thick. I then covered it in about 3 layers of silver metalic embossing powder (heating and cooling between each layer).

The red key was cut about 3 or 4 times and glued together to give it substance.

 To close it I intended the key to hang from a string to wrap around the front. So to lift the locket and give some room for the wrapping I hot attached a big eyelet (or grommet - I still don't know the difference honestly!) to the cover and then hot glued the locket to it. See how it raises it up from the cover?

Look at this pic again to see how I tied the twine to the heart. And I know you can't see but the twine is attached to the inside back cover and then covered with another sheet of pretty paper.

 Now to close it she just has to wrap the twine around the back of the locket. I left the twine fairly long so there is plenty of room for it to grow as it gets stuffed full of trinkets and memories.

Hello, DT Tuesday

It's Tuesday and time for another SP&Co Design Team post.

I used the Ultimate Sentiments II set again- this is one of my favorite all-purpose sets!

 I actually double-stamped the sentiment, something that is easy to do with a clear stamp. First, I stamped it in pink, then stamped again in green after carefully lining up the stamp. It gives a shadow effect:

I also entered this into Stacy's Stash Challenge,over at Sketches 4 All, which is to use an edge punch. I used the Flowerburst punch - I put two lengths together to form a full flower and hid the seam with the ribbon punch in pink.

p.s. I didn't use any twine or foam adhesive!

I felt like I've been using those on everything recently. :)

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Supply list:

SP&Co Ultimate Sentiments II set

EP A Walk in The Park 6x6 pad

Flowerburst border punch

SU ribbon border punch

Marvy Uchida scallop circle punch